Overviews of Waste Management Policies in Japan

Abstract

In Japan, household waste management is the responsibility of municipalities, while industrial waste management is the responsibility of the waste-generating businesses. Because most companies do not have their own waste treatment facilities, it is common for them to contract with licensed companies that have waste treatment facilities. Contracting fees and highly recycling or environmentally friendly facilities are very costly. The problem is that waste disposal companies do not have any incentive to engage a good contractor.

With the progress of decentralisation in 2000, local governments were able to introduce their own local taxes. In 2002, an industrial waste tax was introduced in Mie Prefecture to fund the disposal of industrial waste. However, if a disposal company enters into an agreement with a contractor that has a good facility certified by the prefecture, the tax is not assessed. In Mie Prefecture, a comparison of the amount contracted to taxable facilities to that of tax exempt facilities before and after the introduction of tax showed those who owned tax exempt facilities tended to have a higher rate of increase. It is possible that the introduction of the tax contributed to better waste disposal. By 2016, 27 of 47 prefectures had introduced industrial waste taxes.